A Guide to Business Organization Management and Basic Investigative Skills for the Private Investigator_11 ppt

In vehicle surveillances, they expect you to make aright turn into traffic to follow them since this is easier for you toaccomplish than to cross against traffic.. It is difficult for th

uniform worn by investigators because they know this is how veillance people dress Common sense will tell you that subjectsalso know that we dress down for surveillance work, because theywatch television and see the uniform We can exploit this weak-ness by changing our uniforms and dressing appropriately for theenvironment and the subject It is the responsibility of each inves-tigator to decide what he or she will wear on any given day of asurveillance operation Because subjects often travel through avariety of environments, the investigators will want to ensure thatthey are not always dressed the same but that a variety of dressstyles or “classes” are represented so that they can move freely inthose particular environments.

sur-• Long Stays/Short Stays The subject may stop in a building,movie theater, store, restaurant, and so on, where it is anticipatedshe or he will remain for a period of time Investigators “collapse”around the building waiting for the subject to reappear Whileeveryone is waiting, investigators become bored, thirsty, andlone ly, often moving, changing positions, and often “bunchingup.” Investigators usually anticipate the subject will be making along stay, and they will not be detected Subjects often departbefore the investigators think they will, and the investigators arecaught off guard The investigators scatter in an attempt to resumetheir positions

• Vehicles It is often hard to disguise cars Make your surveillance

ve hicles have a personality Add car seats, trailer hitches, andbump er stickers Keeping your surveillance vehicle ultra-cleanand highly waxed or extremely dirty may draw more attention to

it than if it has a normal amount of road dirt on it

• Vehicle Usage Remember, many of our subjects are involved inillegal activity; that is, they are defrauding the insurance compa-

ny As such, many of them are highly suspicious of surveillance,because they know it can cut off their supply of money from theinsurance company Subjects look for the investigator by lookingfor cars turning in behind them from the right They will putthemselves in your shoes and look for the most logical place foryou to be In vehicle surveillances, they expect you to make aright turn into traffic to follow them since this is easier for you toaccomplish than to cross against traffic Psychologists tell us that

subjects will be more conscious of surveillance during the first 10percent of their trip and the last 10 percent of their trip In otherwords, the longer you can delay the pickup, the less likely youwill be burned in surveillance.

• Highway Courtesy If you drive with extreme courtesy during veillance you will most likely be marked as surveillance Forexample, if you are trying to keep a car between you and the sub-ject, but traffic is light and you keep slowing down at highwayentrance ramps to let cars pass and get in front of you, you callattention to yourself You must be natural and normal in driving,and in some cities, being courteous is not the norm for drivers

sur-• Peeking Finally, you manage to get a vehicle in front of you, but

it just happens to be a bus You cannot see what your subject isdoing or where he is going So you ease out gently, just enough topeek around the bus at your subject Once you are satisfied he orshe is still in front, you ease back in behind the bus and breathe asigh of relief After a short distance, you become worried becauseyou cannot see the subject and you peek again Peeking will getyour surveillance blown in a very short time

Some of the activities we spoke about before now can result in theinadvertent or accidental disclosure of the surveillance to the subject.However, there are subjects who will purposely act to try to identifysurveillance following them

Surveillance Dry Cleaning

Subjects may attempt to identify or shake surveillance when theybegin movement This activity is known as “dry cleaning.” Some ofthe tricks that they may employ (and could be employed by any sub-ject who has read a novel or watched a movie about spies or thepolice) include the following:

A In and Out Buildings, stores and shops are used by the subjects

to go in and come out quickly This activity often forces the tigator to follow the subject in and out of those same buildings,and therefore become familiar to the subject

inves-B Ducks in a Row Basically there are four maneuvers used by thesubjects to draw out surveillance and line them up like “ducks in

a row.”

1 Stops (see Long and Short Stays)

a Expressway Turn-Off Counter-surveillance will be sittingnear the ramp ready to identify all the vehicles coming offbehind the subject, or the subject will simply observe whofollows them off the highway

b Reverse The subject will drive into a park or housing areawhere he knows the road just loops around and comes outthe same way With only one way in and out, any surveil-lance vehicles which follow him in will be easily identified

by him as he drives out

c Choking The subject will try to find a bridge, tunnel or roadwhere the surveillance team has no alternative but to line upand follow—a chokepoint At the other end, counter-surveil-lance will be waiting to identify surveillance vehicles as theycome out of the chokepoint

2 Windows Subjects will look in the window reflections to spotsurveillance Another favorite trick is to enter a store and thenlook out the window It is difficult for the surveillance team tolook in, but the subject can easily see out

3 Stores Subjects will go straight to the back of a store andbrowse from back to front They can then try to spot surveil-lance as it enters Normally people will enter and browse fromfront to back

4 Restaurants Subjects use time as the main factor to detect veillance If anyone follows them in, they believe it to be sur-veillance If you decide to follow the subject into a restaurant,ensure that if you order food, you order something which can

sur-be received quickly, so that the subject does not leave withoutyou If you see the subject leave before you receive your food,leave your food behind and follow the subject You can bereimbursed for the money you wasted, but losing the subjectmay result in a tremendous loss for us and the client

C Movement/No Movement Another favorite technique of jects is to draw surveillance into a place where there is a greatdeal of movement (a busy street) and then just stop The oppo-site would be to draw surveillance into an area where there is nomovement and then quickly move through the area They arelooking for movement when there should be none and no move-

sub-ment when there should be movesub-ment.

D Out of Uniform The subject will start off in one venue or part oftown, but quickly move to another where the clothes you arewearing may not be appropriate A favorite trick is to go from abusiness district (i.e where business suits are appropriate) to apark (where suits are not appropriate), or from the hotel restau-rant to the pool

E Change of Venue This is similar to Out of Uniform Basically,the subject will try to draw out surveillance by moving into dif-ferent areas to make it more difficult for the surveillance to coverthem, force decision making process and communications

F Eyes The subject will walk down a very busy street Suddenly,

he will stop and turn around very quickly, looking at the peoplefollowing him He is looking for the one set of eyes that are look-ing away because everyone else will probably be looking at themsince they stopped abruptly

G Throw-Aways (bait) Subjects will throw an item away in plainview This diverts your attention and eyes While you are look-ing one way, they may be noting the numbers on a telephonepole the other way If someone stops to pick up the bait, counter -surveillance may then burn the surveillance

The basic philosophy behind all of these tricks is to force the tigator into making a decision Foreign intelligence services used to saythat they believed that if they forced the decision-making process, theinvestigator would make the wrong decision 50 percent of the time Remember, however, we are not the only ones who make mistakes.The subject is just as likely to make mistakes as we are, and very often

inves-we can take advantage of those mistakes

Subject Vulnerabilities

The subjects themselves often create vulnerabilities that can beexploited by investigators In other words, they are human too, andhumans make mistakes However, if we do not know whether thesevulnerabilities exist, we cannot take advantage of them The followingare some basic considerations we must be aware of:

• We must know all we can about the subject prior to the lance There is often a great deal of information readily available

surveil-to us about the subject that we can gain through our subject studymentioned previously

• We must think from the subject’s perspective We need to keepour “face” (surveillance) as small as possible

• We must “freeze the scene” on every surveillance We should planand conduct our surveillance so that we always come away withsomething We must gather all available information and thenanalyze and exploit the information

• Think Beyond Placement We often develop good surveillanceplans and place investigators in good locations but fail to thinkbeyond the initial placement Each investigator should knowexactly what she or he is supposed to do, observe, and recordwhilein place, and where she or he is supposed to go when activ-ity occurs

• Come out of the subject area the same way you went in If you go

in covertly, then come out covertly We very often terminate asurveillance only to have a client come back later and requestmore work be done If we “heat up” the subject, we are only mak-ing our job harder

• Anticipate the unexpected Plan, plan, plan

• Always assume there is countersurveillance, regardless of whattype of investigation you are conducting Subjects in all types ofinvestigations have been known to have friends or accomplicesobserve the area or transactions to detect if any police or investi-gators are present

No matter what type of subject you are surveilling, there are alwaysgoing to be mistakes by the subject that you may be able to exploit Atthe same time, we must guard against making mistakes ourselves If weplan for our own movements and actions and watch for mistakes made

by the subject, we can increase our chances to conduct a successfulsurveillance and achieve the objectives we set out to achieve

DETECTING AND ELUDING SURVEILLANCE

Subjects who are suspicious of being under surveillance may resort

to trickery in order to verify their suspicions When subjects resort tosuch acts, it is good to know the various techniques they may employ

to detect and elude surveillance Some subjects may accomplish thistask in very subtle ways, without making it obvious that they areattempting to detect and elude surveillance On the other hand, theiractions may be very obvious

Investigators must be aware of the various techniques employed todetect and elude surveillance We must constantly evaluate and assessthe subject’s actions to determine if positive detection and eludingtechniques are being employed

Many of the areas discussed in this section may seem elementaryand perhaps obvious from a commonsense point of view, but it must

be remembered that every investigator is at one time inexperienced.Not only do inexperienced investigators fall for some of these obviousand commonsense tricks, but very often so too do experienced inves-tigators Some of the areas we will explore include the following:

1 testing for foot surveillance

2 testing for vehicle surveillance

3 eluding foot surveillance

4 eluding vehicle surveillance

5 special considerations in avoiding detection

6 recommended actions

7 being made

When actively involved in surveillance it is very easy to becomeabsorbed in what you are attempting to accomplish and to suddenlyrealize too late that the subject’s dry-cleaning efforts have burned youand your surveillance team Expanding on what we talked about in thesection Surveillance Vulnerabilities, we are going to look at some spe-cific methods used to test for surveillance

Testing for Foot Surveillance

Foot surveillance can be tested for by the following methods:

• Retracing Course By changing direction of movement severaltimes in a short span of time and retracing their course, subjectsmay be able to determine if they are being followed This is themost common and easiest method subjects may employ, but itcan quickly burn a surveillance team.

• Window Reflections In business districts, subjects concernedabout possible surveillance may pause in front of a large showwindow for the ostensible purpose of window shopping and thenobserve the reflections of passersby to spot indications of surveil-lance

• Use of Bait Subjects may throw away a scrap of paper, an lope, or some similar item that may be of interest to anyone fol-lowing them They will then use window reflections or a similarmeans of observation or countersurveillance to determine if any-one retrieves the bait

enve-• Change of Pace Another very simple and common techniqueemployed, but highly effective, is changing pace In areas wherepedestrian and vehicular traffic is relatively sparse, subjects maydetect surveillance by moving very slowly for a distance, thenchanging to a very rapid pace, and later again, changing to a slowpace The subjects may couple this procedure with a sudden stopafter turning a corner in order to observe the actions of thosebehind them This may also be encountered during a vehicle sur-veillance

• Public Conveyances On conveyances, subjects who identify oranticipate surveillance may employ a variety of actions to test forthe presence of surveillance:

• A subject may board the conveyance, pay the fare, and then getoff just as the vehicle starts to move, observing the actions ofothers who have boarded at the same stop to see if anyoneattempts to follow

• A subject may leave the conveyance in an area with littlepedestrian or vehicle traffic and then loiter to determine if theinvestigator dismounts at the same stop or the next one

• A subject may board several successive conveyances along asingle route within a short period of time and watch for facesthat reappear

• Convoy Subjects who recognize they are under surveillance orwho anticipates surveillance may employ the services of one ormore colleagues to follow them at a discreet distance to determine

if they are under surveillance The assistant is termed a “convoy”(and could actually be several assistants) or more commonlyreferred to as countersurveillance Fixed points may also be used,and the subjects will walk a prearranged path within view of thecountersurveillance fixed points so that they may detect any sur-veillance activity This is a most effective method of detecting sur-veillance

Now let us look at some of the techniques used to test for vehiclesurveillance

Testing for Vehicle Surveillance

The following methods are often encountered when subjects areattempting to test for vehicle surveillance:

• Traffic Signals and Controls If subjects are driving an bile, they may use traffic signals and other controls to their advan-tage to determine the presence of surveillance vehicles For exam-ple, they may time their approach to a traffic light so that they willpass through the intersection just as the light turns red or mayeven run a red light and then watch the rearview mirror to deter-mine if any vehicle commits a deliberate traffic violation in order

automo-to follow them They may also drive the wrong way on a one-waystreet, feign motor trouble in a sparsely traveled area, or stopquick ly after turning a corner or going over the top of a hill Thesubjects may drive extremely fast or slow, make U-turns, andpark illegally They may also park frequently in crowded urbanareas where parking space is difficult to find This may be donethree or four times, while the subjects carefully watch for any carthat repeats the process with them

• Stops Subjects may stop in front of a vacant lot or vacant house

in a suburban area where houses are few and far between to feignmotor trouble The stops may be in other areas, preselected forthe ideal conditions they provide for countersurveillance Youmay stop, thinking your vehicle and actions cannot be observed

by the subject, but if countersurveillance techniques are beingemployed, then subjects do not have to watch your actions butcan be alerted to danger by countersurveillance personnel.

• Dead-End Streets Little needs to be said This is a common tice that is easy to employ and can quickly isolate vehicles target-

prac-ed as being surveillance

Many subjects who suspect surveillance or because of the destine or illegal nature of their activities expect it will take steps toelude the observation

clan-Eluding Foot Surveillance

Common and effective measures for eluding surveillance include

• Entering and leaving crowded buildings In business areas, sons seeking to evade surveillance can usually succeed with littledifficulty by hurrying in and out of crowded buildings and takingadvantage of multiple entrances and exits found in large citybuildings

per-• Concealment Subjects may elude surveillance by dodging into

an available entrance immediately upon rounding a corner anddisappearing Entry into apartment buildings for this purpose canusually be gained by pressing a number of bells to the variousapartments At least one person will usually respond and releasethe entry latch, after which the subject may enter, remain con-cealed, and later depart using another entrance

• Confrontation The subject may stop a police officer or securityguard, point out the suspected investigators and have the policeofficer check them out because they are acting suspiciously

• Change of Appearance The same tactic employed by an gator to avoid becoming conspicuous can be equally effective forsubjects seeking to elude surveillance Changing appearance isparticularly effective where, because of crowds or limited visibil-ity, the investigators are forced to rely on color of clothing or sil-houette to maintain contact

investi-• Dodging Pursuing an erratic course through dense pedestrian orvehicle traffic is always effective, particularly when traffic controlscan be used to maximum advantage

• Decoy This can be accomplished quite easily, often using

anoth-er panoth-erson or vehicle look-alike This technique has fooled manysurveillance teams

Let us look at some of the specific ways in which subjects attempt toelude vehicle surveillance

Eluding Vehicle Surveillance

Some of the usual methods of eluding vehicle surveillance are

• Parking in crowded areas, especially where there is only oneparking space available and pulling out within a minute or so

• Operating a vehicle on wrong side of street, driving the wrongway on one way streets, running red lights and committing otherviolations are successful because investigators will not want totake similar action because it would confirm that they have thesubject under surveillance

• A combination of foot and vehicle surveillance could be used todecoy the investigator The subject will jump out of the vehiclejust after it swings around a corner and out of sight of the investi-gator He may proceed on foot or later in another vehicle Thesubject’s original vehicle, driven by an accomplice, is followed bythe investigator and becomes a mere decoy to lead them from thesubject and his activity

• The subject may suddenly turn off the road into a roadside gasstation in an attempt to elude surveillance After the surveillancevehicle has passed the station in an attempt to appear normal, thesubject can drive off in a different direction at high speed

Now let’s look at some special situations which warrant attention inthe area of surveillance detection

Special Considerations in Avoiding Detection:

Eluding Foot and Vehicle Surveillance

• Telephone Booths When the subject enters a phone booth, thesur veillance team must consider the following possibilities ofgaining information which may contribute to the investigation:

• it may be possible to use an adjoining phone booth to overhearthe conversation.

• the subject may leave the phone book open to the page taining the name of the person called or he may note the num-ber on the phone booth wall or a slip of paper which can beretrieved by the investigator

con-• the time spent in the phone booth by the subject will afford theinvestigator an excellent opportunity to take video

• Entering Buildings The size, nature and surrounding locale ofbuildings entered by the subject are significant considerations indetermining further action

• Small buildings If the building has exits which can be keptunder observation from a discreet outside position, the investi-gator normally should not enter However, if the previous pat-tern of activity indicates that the subject may make a contact orengage in some other action pertinent to the investigation, theinvestigator should enter by an entrance other than that used

by the subject (if possible) or otherwise convey the impressionthat he has arrived at the building from a different directionthan that of the subject

• Large buildings An investigator normally will follow the ject into a large building such as a department store or officebuilding Within the building, the investigator must take advan-tage of the building layout to observe the subject withoutattracting attention to him

sub-• Elevators If the subject enters an elevator, the investigator shouldalso enter if there are passengers and the subject is unsuspecting.The investigator may ask for the floor above or below thatrequested by the subject Don’t loiter If the subject is the onlypassenger - don’t follow Remain in the lobby and watch floorindicator

• Restaurants When the subject enters a restaurant, the tor must seat himself out of the direct view of the subject, but with

investiga-a view of the subject If the subject is investiga-accompinvestiga-anied by others investiga-andtheir conversation is deemed to be of probable interest to theinvestigation, the investigator should attempt to place himselfwithin hearing distance The investigator must give attention tothe type of service ordered by the subject and govern his own